Afel Bocoum - Career History

Career History

In 1968, at the age of thirteen, he joined the group of guitarist Ali Farka Touré and singer Harber Maiga as an apprentice. It was Maiga who taught Bocoum to sing and to write songs until his death on 23 March 1983. Bocoum's first solo performance came in 1968 at a musical competition in Mopti. He was well received by the public. In 1972 he performed in front of 3000 people at Mali's second Biennale in Bamako, which was held every two years from 1970 to 1990, when Musa Traore was overthrown. The Bambara people were dominant in Malian affairs at that time and because of his Sonrai ethnicity, Bocoum was only awarded second prize.

He left the Niafunke group in 1975 when he won a scholarship to an agricultural college in M'Pessoba, near Koutiala in the southeast of the country. After three years of study he began working in Djenné, before returning to his home town, and the group, in 1980. In 1982 he was invited to join the Orchestre Diaba Regional from Timbuktu. In the early 1980s he formed Alkibar, and influenced by his knowledge of agriculture, used their music to communicate with people about water and irrigation.

His debut album, Alikibar, was recorded in an abandoned school near Niafunke over the course of six days - the same session and location where the Ali Farka Touré's Niafunke was recorded. In fact, Ali Farka and Bocoum appeared on each other's albums. Bocoum and Ali Farka's record producer believed that transporting the group to a recording studio overseas would diminish the quality of the music.

In 2002 Bocoum collaborated with the Blur singer Damon Albarn on the successful Mali Music album, and the two played together in concerts in London and Denmark.

In 2006, Afel Bocoum and his band, Alkibar, released their second full-length album Niger on the Belgian label Contre-Jour. The sounds of Niger rely heavily on the traditional instruments njarka and njurkel, which give this collection of new materials a more traditional, and distinctively different quality from their excellent Western debut, Alkibar. Niger opens with a heartfelt and stirring tribute to his late mentor, Ali Farka Touré.

As of 2011, Afel is touring as part of the second iteration of Acoustic Africa.